


Somewhere Far From Here

by chibipooh



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Sexual Content, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Road Trip, Slow Burn, Wedding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:13:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5820910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibipooh/pseuds/chibipooh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So there they were, one emotionally stunted man with anger management issues, one quiet girl with more secrets than she could name, and one very round cat all trapped together in one rickety car on the way to one big ass wedding. </p><p>Better take bets on who will snap first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I really need to start a multi-chapter Reylo Road Trip AU right as the semester was starting? No. Did I do so anyway? Hell fucking yes.

She was doing this for Finn. 

That was the mantra Rey Kenobi repeated over and over in her head as she sat on the steps leading to her run-down apartment building, frantically checking her watch only to find that -surprise!- she was still late. She glanced down at the two backpacks she’d brought, her meager luggage for this whole trip, and groaned. 

If only she had gone with her original plan and bought a bus ticket down to the wedding venue, then she wouldn’t be in this mess. But Finn had given her that puppy dog look, the one she’d been weak against since they were children, and she knew then that no perfectly thought out plan she could come up with would survive against her best friend’s wants. 

“My best woman of honor is not spending 3 days on some danky old bus,” Finn had insisted despite her many protests. “An old friend of Poe’s is driving down later too because of work, you can catch a ride with him. It’ll be so much better than a bus ride.” 

So that’s how she’d ended up sitting in the mid-July heat for a ride with a man she didn’t know who was already 46 minutes late. Being the kind of person who would show up at 3:47 if you told her to be there by 4:00, Rey really did not appreciate this man’s lateness. Then again, if he was a friend of Poe Dameron, certifiably the nicest guy to ever exist on this spinning mud-ball of a planet, then he really couldn't be all that bad, right? 

A bead of sweat dripped down Rey’s brow. She wiped at it angrily.  _ For Finn,  _ she reminded herself, fanning at her collarbone,  _ You’re doing this for Finn.  _

After what felt like an eternity, a dark car that looked at least twice as old as Rey was pulled up in front of the building. Rey jumped to her feet, gathered her things, and jogged over to the sidewalk. Further inspection revealed that this wasn’t any car: her ride was driving a 1985 Yugo GV, or as it was better known among the car fanatic circles that Rey frequented, the worst car of all time. 

Rey took in the car’s midnight black doors, crimson hood, and windows that looked as if nobody had touched them in decades with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She had an urge to call Finn right there and let him know that she’d fucking walk barefoot across the country before she drove anywhere in this death trap, but she suppressed it. 

For whatever reason, the driver of the car wasn’t getting out, so Rey took the opportunity to inspect the vehicle’s tires. They were just as banged up as the rest of it. She put a hand against them curiously. One thing her years of mechanical expertise had taught her was that you could learn a lot about her person from the quality of their car. If the state of this Yugo was anything to go by, then her traveling companion was a tattered soul indeed. 

“I go through all the trouble of coming to pick you up, and the first thing you do is try to slash my tires.” 

Rey jumped to her feet. A man who she assumed was the owner of this death trap on wheels was leaning against the side of the car, arms crossed in front of him and a look on his face as if he’d just had his foot run over and his ice cream stolen at the same time. Something about his attitude when he was the one who was late pissed her the hell off, and she opened her mouth to give a snarky comeback when she realized just how much taller than her he was. Rey hadn’t survived so many years in the foster care system by engaging in fights with people who clearly weren't in the mood, so instead of going straight to blows, she shifted from a defensive stance into one she hoped was more welcome and open. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing her neck with a sheepish grin. “It’s just, I’ve never seen a 1985 Yugo GV in real life. It’s... smaller than I expected.” 

She waited a few seconds for him to reply. He didn’t. Coughing awkwardly, she stuck her hand out. 

“I’m Rey. Nice to meet you,” she said hurriedly, so fast it came out like one word. For a scary moment it looked as if he was going to do nothing but stare at her with those dark, brooding eyes of his, but then he took her hand in his and shook it, his grip tight. 

“Ben.” 

Rey nodded. 

“Well okay, Ben, we’ve lost a little bit of time already but I’m sure if we go pick up the rental now, we should be make it just in time for the rehearsal dinner.” 

Ben raised an eyebrow at her. 

“What makes you think we’re taking a rental?” 

Rey wanted to laugh but the look on his face relayed nothing but complete sincerity. 

“You don’t- there's no way we’ll make it there in one piece in this thing,” she argued, tapping a finger against one of the windows. Ben rolled his eyes, and Rey’s annoyance at him jumped another three levels. 

“The Vader’s a gem. She’ll get us there just as well as any overpriced SUV could,” insisted Ben. He walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk, which was honest-to-God closed with a piece of rope. “Come on, drop off your things.” 

Pulling a face, Rey walked over to the back of the car and peered in. It looked even worse back here than it had at the front. 

“Are you sure? I mean it’s a bit of a splurge, but if we split it between the both of us, we should be able to afford something that will get us there in one piece.” 

If Rey had held on to any hope that her companion for this trip was anything besides the  largest raging asshole in the universe, it died the moment he laughed at her. 

“Please,” he said, eying her over, taking in the frayed tips of her backpack and her tattered third-hand sneakers to the brown hair she’d pulled back from her face in three small buns with an old piece of fabric. “As if you could afford even a fourth of a rental car, much less half of one.” 

Rey’s mouth fell open in indignation. Huffing, she threw her bag into the trunk with much more force than was necessary and stormed over to the passenger side of the car, muttering curses under her breath the whole way. Stupid Finn. Stupid Ben. Stupid horribly painted Italian car with a weird German name. She yanked on the door handle. It didn’t budge. 

On the other side of the car, Ben gave her a self-satisfied smirk. 

“Only the driver’s side door works.” He gestured towards the driver door like a valet presenting a limousine. “After you.” 

As Rey clamored over the driver’s seat into the passenger’s one, she caught just a whiff of some god-awful cologne and a glance at what looked like Pierce the Veil CDs. She closed her eyes and whispered a prayer. This was going to be a long trip. 

  
  


Why the hell had he agreed to this. 

Maybe it’s because he would have rather stuck piercing hot pokers into in his eyes than spend even an hour trapped in an airplane cabin with his family. Maybe it was because he’d always enjoyed being contrary, and the looks on his family’s faces when he said he’d be driving to the wedding rather than flying down with the rest of them had been priceless. 

Or maybe it was become driving was going to take at least days longer than flying would have, giving him that much more time to prepare himself for what was certain to be the wedding of the century. 

Well, whatever. 

Whatever the reason was, it didn’t matter now that he was here in the car with a complete stranger who had known him for less than twenty minutes and already loathed him. Ben knew he wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, but this level of loathing this fast was a new record even for him. 

He had just turned his blinker on to change into the lane that would take them to the interstate when she spoke up for the first time since they’d left her apartment. 

“Do you mind if we make a quick stop before we get to the highway?” 

Ben looked at her from the corner of his eye. Her gaze was set directly on the road in front of them, as if he wasn’t even there. 

“Weren’t you the one who was ready to claw my face off six minutes ago for already being behind schedule?” he asked. 

“Well, yes,” she admitted. “But this is actually really important and it will take like seven minutes max. And it’d mean a whole lot to Finn.” 

Ah yes, this mysterious Finn he’d heard so much about but had never seen in the flesh. He recalled that the girl next to him- Rey, that Rey was Finn’s best friend and the best woman of honor in the wedding party, which Ben suspected was a position created solely for this event and was not a real thing at all. 

“I don’t know,” he said because damn if he didn’t like being difficult. “We are  _ really  _ late already after all...”

“Please,” said Rey, through gritted teeth.”

And,” she added with a voice that sounded as if the thing she was about to say caused her physical pain, “I’ll  _ owe you one.”  _

Ben could feel her looking at him. A smug grin ghosted his lips. They’d just met, but he could already tell that Rey was not the kind of girl that liked to be indebted to others. He couldn't think of anything she had that he could possibly need, but it never hurt to have people in your debt. 

“Alright, but only because you asked so nicely.” He turned off his blinker and merged back into the main road. “Show me the way.” 

Rey directed him into a corner of the city that was so run-down, it made the Vader look like she had just driven off the lot. Ben eyed the series ragged chain-link fences and overgrown yards they passed by with scrutiny. This was the kind of place he heard about on the news, often for reasons that were less than savory. What kind of business could Rey possibly have here? 

She told him to stop in front of a small house that looked marginally less terrible than the others on the street. He had no objections when she ordered him to stay in the car, though a childish part of him had wanted to get out for no reason other than to spite her. From the safety of the car, he watched her saunter up the driveway and knock on the paint-peeled front door. The door opened somewhat and she slipped inside. 

With a long-suffering sigh, Ben stretched out to the best of his ability in the driver’s seat. His over 6 feet of body barely fit behind the wheel these days, but he’d been through so much in good old Vader that he couldn’t stand the thought of trading her in for something newer. This car had been there for everything, from his first kiss when he was a just a lanky 16 year old with no idea where to put his hands to that terrible first night on his own when he’d had nothing but a new name and no family to go home to. 

Ben silently cursed himself. Of all the things he wanted to remember right now, inarguably the worst stage of his life was not one of them. 

And then, because the universe felt the need to remind him once again that it hated him, his cell phone rang. The caller- Dad. 

Ben eyed the phone warily. His finger hovered over the green ‘Answer’ icon, a force he couldn’t even name holding it back. He pulled his hand away right as the call went to voicemail. 

“Benjamin? It’s Dad,” came the voice from the phone, tinny and scratchy due to static. “It wouldn’t kill you to pick up your damn phone in a while, your Mom and I are-” 

Ben turned the phone off. 

He gripped the steering wheel tightly with both fists and breathed deeply once, twice, three times. This was the only technique he remembered from that god-awful anger management course they’d forced him to take that one summer, and it rarely helped calm his upsettingly frequent rage spikes. God, if a single call from his father could make him this mad after all these years, how the fuck was he going to last through an entire weekend of him and the rest of the damn Skywalker pack breathing down his neck...

His thoughts were broken by a tapping coming from the window. Ben looked up to see Rey standing by the window with a smile that could mean nothing good. In her hands she held a beige... suitcase? No that was no suitcase. Ben scowled when he realized exactly what Rey was holding.

“No.  _ No.  _ There is no way in hell you are letting that thing in my car,” he said as he fumbled with the seat buckle, jumping out and drawing himself to his full height. Rey looked up at him with a defiant gaze, the cat carrier in her arms bulky between them.

“Ben, I’d like you to meet BB-8. BB-8, Ben.” 

From inside the cat carrier, the roundest cat Ben had ever seen peered up at him curiously. He might have mistaken the orange and white creature for an actual ball had it not mewled at him in a series of beep like meows. 

“Your wedding gift to Finn and Poe is a ... cat.” Oh God, she wasn’t one of those weird cat girls was she? He may as well throw himself from the moving car now. Rey rolled her eyes at the suggestion, moving past him to stash the cat carrier in the back seat. 

“BB-8’s a guest, not a gift,” She said over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s not nearly as gruff and disgusting as he looks on the outside.” 

“Well, thank God for that.” 

Rey turned to him, narrowing her eyes. 

“I was talking to the cat.” 

Ben took a deep breath. He climbed into the car after Rey and started the engine.

“But for real, what's the deal with the cat?” asked Ben, praying that she really wasn’t one of those intense cat people. Rey didn’t even bother to look at him as she thumbed through his collection of CDs. After a little while, Rey finally spoke up. 

“BB-8’s owners are Finn and my former foster parents.” Rey said this statement as if she was discussing the weather or gas prices. Ben’s eye went wide. He turned to look at Rey, but she was still away from him, a lock of hair falling out from one of her buns. For some reason, he felt like smoothing it back. He looked away. 

“Neither of them could get out of work to make it to the wedding,” she continued, her voice even. “So they suggested I bring BB-8 along as a sort of representative of where Finn and I met.” She finally turned to him, something hard and powerful in her eyes that made his stomach flip over. 

“So, that's the deal with the cat.”

Ben just nodded.  _ And I thought I had baggage,  _ he thought to himself. From the backseat, BB-8 yowled. 

So there they were, one emotionally stunted man with anger management issues, one quiet girl with more secrets than she could name, and one very round cat all trapped together in one rickety car on the way to one big ass wedding. Despite the fact that this sounded like the set-up from a bad Adam Sandler movie, maybe the reality wouldn’t be so bad. 

A retching noise came from the backseat. 

“Did I mention BB-8 might have a bit of a vomiting problem?” said Rey cheerfully. 

Ben Solo counted to ten. Yes, the universe most definitely hated him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus the story begins. As always, feel free to leave a comment! Hearing from you all is the highlight of my day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot believe the amazing reception this fic has gotten! Thank you so much to each and every one of you who commented, kudo'd, and even just read chapter 1. I hope the piece continues to live up to your expectations!

If there was one thing about herself Rey was proud of, it was her ability to fix things. 

She could locate the busted carburetor in an engine in ten minutes. She could change a tire in less than half that time. Give her a pile of rusted junkyard scraps, and she’d have a fully functioning machine of some sort in the time it took you to say, “Make me a fully functioning machine of some sort.” 

But as handy as her tinkering skills had been in the past, she would have traded them all away to whatever deity would listen just to make this car ride less awkward. 

They’d been on the road for about forty minutes now and in that time, no words had been exchanged besides, “Does this car have AC?” and “No.” 

It wasn’t even that Rey was particularly chatty.  Sure she could joke around with Finn for literal hours about almost any subject, and once someone got her started on engineering or mechanics, it was impossible to shut her up, but outside of those very specific circumstances, conversation did not come that easily to her. Maybe this was the reason why she could count on less than one hand the number of people in this world she truly felt close to. 

She did the math in her head. Today was Wednesday. The rehearsal dinner was Saturday and the wedding Sunday afternoon. If all went according to plan, they would arrive at the hotel sometime early Friday, giving her enough time to figure out her part in the whole thing and help set up. 

So if nothing changed soon, she was facing 48 straight hours of this silent hell. Rey huffed. 

“Something on your mind?” Ben asked in a tone that made it clear he didn’t really care. Still, Rey decided not to take him up on the bait. Someone in the car had to be civil, and it wasn’t going to be the cat. 

“Yeah, actually. You already know about me and Finn... How do you know Poe?” she asked as she was genuinely curious on the matter. She’d never met this Poe in person, but everything she had read about him on Facebook or heard about him from Finn (who was admittedly biased when it came to his own fiance) made him seem like the kind of dude who would despise boys like Ben on principle. That the two were close enough for Poe to invite him to his wedding baffled her. 

Ben must have gotten this question before, because his response seemed almost rehearsed. 

“Our moms were stationed together in the army. Haven’t been able to get rid of each other since,” he responded plainly. Rey waited for more elaboration, but it never came. That coupled with the very distinct “Don’t talk to me” aura he was exuding made her think he wasn't going to say any more . 

Okay then, conversation was out of the question. Maybe some music would help. 

She reached for the knob to turn on the radio when Ben made a noise of protest. 

“All they’re going to play is some Top 40 shit. Play one of my CDs,” he commanded. Now, Rey had had no real preference before that moment but suddenly she had never wanted to listen to Top 40 music more in her life. Pretending she hadn’t heard him, Rey switched the radio on. She only managed to flicker through a couple of channels before Ben knocked her hand away. 

“My car, my music,” he said sternly. Rey balked. 

“Excuse me, but it is an internationally recognized rule that the passenger decides the music while the driver focuses on not crashing and killing us all,” she snapped back. She defiantly changed the channel to one of those Top 40 ones he so despised where an overly peppy DJ bleated about the current state of jeggings in America. Ben growled and grabbed the knob. Rey grabbed it back. What ensued was a mini tug-of-war over the small piece of plastic that ended with the knob coming off entirely.

Rey stared at the knob dumbstruck. Ben looked at it before quickly returning his eyes to the road, his grip on the steering wheel tightening.

“I can fix this,” Rey said quickly and attempting to do just that. Unfortunately for her, it was clear that the knob was not going back on without a wrench and some super glue, two things she had but had chosen to not bring with her thinking it’d be of no use at a wedding reception. 

“Alright, new plan. we stop at a rest stop. I clean up the cat vomit. I fix your radio. I apologize for the rest of eternity. Does that sound good.” 

Ben glowered. Rey was starting to think that the glowering was less of an emotion and more of a base state of being for him at this point. 

“ Oh don’t even worry about it. It’s fine. Everything is fine,” said Ben in the sort of voice someone only used when everything was clearly not fine. 

Rey juggled with attempting to start a conversation with him again, but since there was a small vein at the side of his head that looked as if it may pop at any moment, she decided against it. 

She heard BB-8 give a pitiful mewl from the backseat. His owner had warned her that he was prone to motion sickness during car rides. 

“Don't worry, BB, when we fill up at the next gas station, I’ll let you out for a bit,” she promised. Ben hadn’t mentioned anything about filling up at the next gas station, but she figured that he had to seeing as they hadn’t gotten any gas when they started and were running low already. 

She was right. When a bright yellow Shell gas station came into view, Ben pulled in without so much as a word to her. He got at quickly to fuel up and she did as well ,going to open the back door. Instead of pulling the crate out, she went in, opening the crate and pulling BB-8 into her lap. The cat wiggled happily at being let out of his confines, rubbing up happily against her. Rey picked him up, burying her face in his soft fur. 

“Hello, BB-8. Hello, hello, hello,” she said. 

BB-8 gave a happy meow. It was good to know she still had one friend making this journey with her. 

Rey pulled out her phone. Flashing on the screen where 14 text messages and six missed calls all from a very familiar someone. Uh oh. She pressed the call back button and waited, not too long though as loud samba music blared into her ear after the first ring. 

“OW! Finn!” Rey pulled the phone away from her face. “Finn, turn that down,” she yelled back.

“Sorry, sorry!! Give me a second!” The music faded away and Finn’s voice, slightly out of breath, replaced it. “Is that better?” 

“Much.” Rey shifted so she was sitting across the seat with BB-8 curled up next to her stomach. “What was that anyway?” 

“One of Poe’s aunts is helping the DJ pick a playlist for the reception. She likes her music really, really loud.” Rey hadn’t realized how tense she’d been until she heard the voice of her very best friend in her whole wide world on the other end of the phone. Even though they were thousands of miles apart, she could just picture the tired but loving grin on his face as he discussed Poe’s aunt’s loud taste in music like it was the most fascinating thing in the whole wide world. 

“Finn, when was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?” she demanded. 

“Oh, you know maybe two, three...a month ago, but hey who is keeping track?” 

“Finn,” she said in the motherly tone she had mastered after years of looking after foster siblings.  “This isn’t going to be much of a wedding if one of the grooms passes out from exhaustion at the altar.”

“Yeah okay, thanks Mom.” Rey could practically hear him rolling his eyes at her through the phone and the thought made her chuckle. God, she’d missed him. 

“More importantly, you’re on your way now right?” he asked. “How are things going?” 

There was so much genuine joy in Finn’s voice that Rey didn’t have the heart to let him know she was literally trapped in a screaming metal cage from hell. Putting on her best cheery voice, she said, “Things are great on my end. There were a few, um, setbacks-” She looked out the window at Ben who had apparently gotten his dollar stolen by a vending machine “-but now we’re on our way and we should still get there early Friday like I’d planned.” 

“Sounds good to me!... I can’t wait till you get here. Bye, love ya peanut.” 

“Love you too, peanut.” 

“Peanut,” repeated Ben. Rey jumped. She didn’t realize she’d left the door open. Had he heard her entire conversation? 

“It’s a nickname. you know, something  _ friends  _ give each other, not that you’d know anything about that.” 

“Right, because it’s impossible that I’d know anything about going by a different name than your own,” he retorted. “I’m going into the store. Pass me my bag.” 

“What’s the magic word?” 

“You broke and defiled my car. Give me my bag.” 

Well, he wasn’t wrong. Shifting BB-8 slightly, Rey begrudgingly threw the bag at him. He caught it and left without so much as a thank you. 

She sighed and leaned back. BB-8 purred on her stomach. The last time she’d hung out with BB-8 like this, she’d been in high school, Finn had been there, hogging the covers as usual, and they’d babbled about the latest Pokemon game all night. Now she was on her way to his wedding. Wow. 

Rey tried to imagine Finn as he’d be in just a few days, all dressed up in a tuxedo about to pledge himself to the love of his life. Maybe if she tried hard enough, that image would replace the one she had of the boy who had made her hold his hand when he went to the barber for the first time. 

Yes, she needed to try harder. That was it. 

Sighing, Rey placed Bb-8 back into his crate and exited the car, figuring she may as well enjoy a chance to stretch her legs while she had it. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to get some extra food for BB-8. She saw Ben loitering near the cigarettes, and she deliberately walked around the store to avoid crossing his path. As she passed the sweets, she spotted an elderly man picking out a candy bar for a little girl. The sight made her smile, and suddenly she remembered another person she had yet to call. 

Rey dialed the number and held her breath as it rang. 

“Hello, Rey?” came a deep voice with a British accent. 

“Hi, Grandpa. You’re not busy right now, are you?” she asked, picking up and inspecting a can of Fancy Feast as she did so. If it was early afternoon here that meant it was evening in England, right?

“I always have time to spare for you my dear. What’s going on?” 

“Nothing much. I just wanted to let you know that I’m on the way to Finn’s wedding now. If everything goes according to plan, we should arrive by Friday morning.”

“We?”

“Oh uh yeah, did I not tell you. I’m driving down with a friend of Poe’s. Guy named Ben. Biggest asswipe you’ve ever seen- wait, you didn’t hear that,” she apologized only realizing after the words were out of her mouth that normal girls didn’t curse at their grandfathers. Obi-Wan laughed. 

“My dear, you will have to try much harder than that to say anything that could offend these old ears.” 

Rey laughed too. So maybe she was new to this whole “having a grandfather” thing, but it helped to remember that he was just as new to the “having a granddaughter” thing as well. 

“A friend of Poe’s named Ben you say?” said the old man wistfully. “Short for Benjamin?” 

“Not sure. I guess.” 

“Good name, Ben. Did you know Ben is my middle name?”

“Really?” There was still so much she didn’t know about the man who was her only flesh and blood left in this world. 

“Really. Old friends long ago even named their son Ben after me because of it. He was a good boy.” 

“Yeah, well I wish that Ben was here instead of this one,” Rey sighed. She looked up to see him still by the cigarettes. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he was bent so far over Rey wasn’t sure how he hadn’t fallen already. Just as she was about to turn her attention back to the cat food, she watched in disbelief as he pulled a box of cigarettes straight off the shelf and into his pocket. 

“Are you stealing those!?” Rey yelled. Everyone in the store jumped in surprise, Ben turning around so fast he accidentally knocked a novelty snow globe to the ground. 

“What the f-” yelled Ben.

“Stealing? What? Rey what’s happening? asked Obi-Wan his voice frantic.

“Put that back right now!” commanded Rey. The sleeping man behind the cash register had sat up and was now watching them intently.

“Is something the matter over there,” he called out. 

“Yes, actually. The problem is that girl is clearly insane because I am not a thief.” He held up the box of cigarettes plainly so both her and the cashier could see. It was clearly worn out and older than anything in the store, and even a different brand than the ones on the shelf. 

“Take something out of my pocket and put it back and suddenly I’m a thief.” 

Horror flooded into Rey. Not even bothering to look at her, Ben put his cigarettes back in his pocket and stormed out of the store. Rey ran out after him. 

“Wait! Ben!” Oh man, she’d really fucked up now. “I’m sorry, that was my fault completely I’ll-”

“Shut up! Just, shut up!” 

Rey could only watch in horror as Ben reached his fist back and rammed it full force into the Vader’s side. So that was where all the dents in the car had come from. Everyone at the gas station was staring at him now, but Ben took no notice of it. With each WHAM! the car shook and she could only imagine how terrified BB-8 must be feeling inside of that thing. After several more hits to the car, he stopped suddenly, his chest heaving. He looked up at  her and a shiver ran down her spine. 

“Let’s go” 

Rey blinked. She got in the car. 

Dead silence- this is what accompanied them after they left the gas station. Rey didn’t even know what she would have said had she wanted to say anything. Despite how intense his outburst had been, at no point did she feel like his anger was directed toward her or that he was about to hurt her. Her accusation had simply been the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

Still, she’d never seen anything like that, and she’d grown up basically surrounded by angry kids. His anger felt so pure and blinding and raw that Rey wondered if Ben could even see the world through it. 

Pretending to bend over to get something from her bag, Rey looked at Ben. His hands were tight on the wheel, deeply purpling bruises blooming over them. 

“Your hand,” she began weakly.  “You should-”

“I know,” he cut her off. 

“I have band aids if you want-”

“I don’t.”

“But you really-”

“Stop talking. Don’t talk to me.” 

Rey turned away. 

She found solace in the fact that the view, at least, was spectacular. They were driving through the kind of idyllic countryside most only saw on TV, small farmsteads and waving fields of wheat all on a backdrop of bright blue sky and gorgeous mountains in the distance. When she was little, there was nothing Rey had loved more than watching the world roll by from the window of a car. There was something strangely comforting about seeing the heavens stretch on for miles and miles into a horizon she couldn't even see. It was like being in the center of the world. 

One particular farm stood out to her, an old structure covered completely in what looked like multicolored flags. She turned her head to watch it until it had faded out of view. What an odd place. 

She yawned. Maybe she’d take a nap. 

The scenery slowed down as fatigue overtook her. The world seemed to stop. 

She closed her eyes.

It stopped. 

Her eyes shot open. They’d stopped. In the driver’s seat, Ben uttered a string of curses, fisting his hands through his hair. 

The Vader was dead. 

They were on their own. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we're getting to the good stuff. As always, feel free to leave a comment!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely hope people who actually know something about cars aren't reading this story.

When Ben had been a teenager, he’d been convinced everyone else in the world had been given a handbook on to to navigate life like a normal fucking human being whereas all he’d been given was the proverbial middle finger by the Powers That Be. Growing up had only reinforced this idea tenfold, if the incident earlier was any indication. 

Man, he’d really fucked up this time.

Like, what had happened at the gas station was really,  _ really  _ bad even for him. Ben guessed that on an overall scale of all of his fuckups, this one fell somewhere between forgetting Mother’s Day and that one time he accidentally ran over the neighbor’s dog with his car (The stupid thing shouldn’t have been running around without a leash anyway!) 

He wasn’t even sure why he’d gone off like that in the first place. Her comment was justified in retrospect even if her reaction had been over the top; from her point of view, she had just seen a man she hated pull something off a store shelf and stuff it in his pocket. The whole situation was almost funny in a twisted sort of way, and Ben was nothing if not twisted.

_ You’re so full of shit, Ben Solo.  _

Pain pulsed through  his fist. He hadn’t broken skin- this time at least- but it still hurt like hell. Thanks to his pasty paleness, the bruises would turn a lovely purple color, then green and then yellow, a painful reminder of his faults painted in every hue of the rainbow. 

And now his car was dead. Great. Just great. 

“What happened?” 

Rey, who only a few minutes ago had been on the brink of passing out completely, sat bolt upright in her seat. He waited for the inevitable “I-told-you-so” or smug grin or any other indication that she was the only capable person in this car and that he was a big a piece of shit as he felt in the moment. 

No way in hell was he going to give her the satisfaction of saying that. 

“Car stopped,” he said bluntly and in the most unhelpful manner possible. 

Exiting the car, Ben cringed as the the early evening summer air, wet and warm, blew into his face. Far off into the distance, clouds formed in what had not long ago been a clear sky. The clouds he eyed warily. He wasn’t the superstitious sort, not really, but he knew nothing good happened when the clouds rolled in. 

Unfortunately for Ben, the Vader was in worse shape than he’d thought. It didn’t take a world-class mechanic to see the car was way past its prime, and the fact that it was older than most millennials and probably would have made a better waffle iron than it did functioning vehicle didn’t help its case either. 

Ben laid a hand against the warm metal of the car. 

_ Are you sure you want this one, kiddo? I’ve seen washing machines with better mileage than this thing.  _

_ Yeah, Dad. This is the one. I can feel it.  _

Ben frowned at the memory. Now was really not the time for a trip down nostalgia lane especially when the they wouldn't be going down any lanes if they didn’t do something fast. 

When he opened the hood to check how bad the damage really was, thick black smoke poured out into Ben’s face, sending him doubled over in a coughing fit. He swore he heard Rey snort from the car and he felt the heat rush to his ears. Then he remembered that the door was closed and there’s no way he’d hear a snort through that. Besides, even if she did snort, what did he care? This wasn’t the middle school locker room, and he wasn’t some dumb kid who cared what other’s thought of him anyway. 

_ Ha, that’s a good one.  _

Ben looked up from his coughing fit to see Rey climbing over his seat. He straightened back up just in time for her to make her way around. He could practically see the gears inside her mind turning as she surveyed the car with her T-shirt pulled over her mouth to block the smoke. So her nose scrunched up when she concentrated hard on something. Fascinating. 

“The alternator’s completely dead,” said Rey. “And I can’t quite tell, but I think your spark plugs are faulty as well.” She paused, weighing her next words carefully. “... If you want, I can take a look at it.” 

He was genuinely surprised she’d even offer to fix his car after all that happened. He was ready to take her up on it, but then that burning part of him that he could never quite hide from opened his mouth and said,

“Thanks, but I think I’d prefer to have a professional look at it, not that I don’t believe you have excellent car maintenance skills.”

Rey made an indignant sound, and Ben turned away from her and pulled out his phone. Of course it would have no service, of course. That was just the kind of day he was having. ey said something else that he didn’t quite hear. Making a big show of pretending to look up a tow number, he heard Rey call out,

“Don’t ignore me!”

Ben looked down at her. Drawn to her full height, she barely reached his chin, yet the pure animosity he felt radiating off of her almost knocked him to his knees. 

“I’m trying to fix our problem so we can get to your friend’s stupid wedding,” said Ben.  

“Poe is your friend as well! God, are you this unpleasant to everyone or only people who are trying to help you?” Rey huffed, stomping her foot. Ben smirked in disbelief. 

“Did you just stomp your foot? Like right now, is that just a thing you did?” he asked in amazement. That only served to make Rey madder. 

“Oh sure, I’m the immature one. At least I don’t throw a temper tantrum the second things don’t go my way! You’re such an asshole I’m amazed crap doesn’t fly from your mouth as soon as you open it.” 

Ben’s hand wrapped into a fist around his phone. 

“Do you really want to start talking shit? Let’s talk about how tired your legs must be from jumping to all those conclusions back at the gas station.” He leaned forward until he was inches away from her face, close enough to count the constellation of freckles dancing across it. “I might be an ass, but at least I’m not some broke insignificant nobody with no future.”

Rey recoiled as if she’d been hit. 

In that moment, Benjamin Solo hated himself more than any other being in the universe. 

He wished that he would curse at him, slap him, do anything beside give him that look that hurt worse than any blow ever could. Without another word, Rey turned around and went back into the car. Ben raised a hand towards her, for what purpose even he didn’t know, but then lowered it, leaving deep crescent marks in the flesh of his palms. 

_ At least it can’t get any worse?  _

A drop of water hit his face. Ben looked up. 

All at once, the sky fell . 

A deluge of near Biblical proportions tumbled from the sky, instantly drenching Ben to the bone. He barely got back into the Vader without a flood of water rushing into it. The rain pounded against the roof of the car in a constant drumbeat, the flow interwoven now and then with roaring claps of thunder. 

Seemingly unperturbed by the sudden turn of events, Rey pulled a wrapped sandwich and a baggie full of cat treats out of her bag. She reached back and offered a treat to BB-8, who pulled away. This would have been the perfect opportunity to crack a joke 

But a line had been crossed, and he knew no amount of snarky jokes would be enough to un-cross it. 

As Rey pulled her phone out of her pocket, her sandwich tumbled out off her lap onto the ground. Ben attempted to reach down to pick it up, but lightning quick Rey grabbed the sandwich from him, their hands brushing briefly as she did so. 

Ben had never understood the concept of a murderous gaze until he saw the way Rey looked at him then. He leaned into her anger, using it to fuel himself. Yes, yes fight him. That's what he needed, what he deserved. Make him feel like the trash they both knew he was. 

“Have something to say?” he said, searching for buttons he knew could be pushed. 

Rey looked at him, a tired weight in her eyes. 

“When the rain stops, I’m fixing the car and then I’m driving us to the nearest bus station and we'll go our separate ways. I can’t go on like this any more” 

Ben stared ahead, his view obscured by the rain running down his windshield. 

“Alright.” 

The roar of the rain grew into a crescendo, the entire car vibrating with the hum of it. He pointedly kept his gaze on his windshield wiper, more fatigued than ever as the fight drained out of him, replaced by something heavier and darker. So their little adventure was over before it even really began. That was fine by him. Really. 

He wasn’t even sure why he was upset about it. He had literally met the girl today. They had done nothing but fight and sit in silence for most of that time. Of course she’d want to separate. 

Ugh, his head hurt. Ben laid his forehead against the steering wheel. As silly as it sounded, he wished he had a time machine. If he did, he’d go back to that morning and tell past himself to ... to do what even? Be less of himself, maybe . After all, being himself is what had gotten them into this mess. 

That’s what had caused every problem he’d ever had, really. 

Once again, a tendril of hair had fallen out from one of Rey’s buns. Ben followed it with his eyes down behind the curve of her ear to where it landed at the base of her neck. He hadn’t had much of a chance to look at her before, being more focused on the road, so now that their journey was coming to an end and this was potentially the last time he would ever be alone with her, he took the chance to take in as much of her as he could. 

What he saw was a girl whose face was more used to frowning than smiling, who talked to a cat like he was a person, and called her best friend ‘Peanut’. 

What he saw was a girl in hand-me-down clothes, calloused hands, and more determination than he’d ever had for anything in his life. 

What he saw was a puzzle just waiting to be solved, if only he took the first step to pick up the pieces . 

Ben looked away, startled at himself. He wasn’t ready for this journey to be over, not by a long shot. At least, not until he could see her smile one more time. 

If Poe were here, he would most certainly know exactly the words to say to make everything alright again and bring the smile back to her face. No, scratch that- if Poe were here, she wouldn’t be trapped in a run-down car in the middle of nowhere in the first place. 

He had to say something. It couldn’t end like this. He wouldn’t be able to stand himself if he let it end like this. Ben opened his mouth to speak, but Rey turned around in her seat, attempting to feed BB-8 a treat once again. Slightly annoyed his big apology had been cut off, even though he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say, Ben was ready to return to sulking when Rey turned back to him, her eyes wide in shock. 

“Ben, he’s not moving. BB-8 isn’t moving!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a happy author who enjoys writing happy things. :) Also, I know I say this each time, but thank you so much for each and every comment you all leave. I'm squeezing this out between a full time school course-load and two jobs, so interacting with you guys via comments gives me more determination to finish this tale than you even know. Thank you again!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The good news: There's a new chapter and I'm not dead! :D

When BB-8 turned down the treat the first time, Rey hadn’t thought too much of it, having been so focused on her fight with Ben. But when she tried again and found him lying there, legs splayed out in front of him, mouth open, every part of her body went cold.  

Hands shaking, she’d touched him softly. No reaction. 

“Ben, he’s not moving. BB-8 isn’t moving!”  

Barely registering the bewildered look Ben gave her, Rey shook BB-8 once again, harder this time. The cat’s chest rose slightly at the touch, and he gave out a strangled, hacking breath, but a breath nonetheless. Rey let out a mix between a sigh and a cry at the sight, blinking back the tears pricking at her eyes.

“What's wrong with him?” demanded Ben, his voice laced with worry. Truth be told, for a second, Rey had even forgotten he was in the car. 

“I don’t know. Move, I’m bringing him to the front.” 

Ben leaned forward, and Rey reached over the seats awkwardly to bring BB-8 to the front with them, though not without some accidental elbow poking as the space in the car was that small. Cradling the cat in her arms, Rey inspected him with earnest. Eyes half-closed, chest barely moving, body unnaturally still save for a few small breaths, BB-8 looked the worst she had ever seen him. 

“Fuck,” said Ben, his eyebrows knitting together. “This is bad.” 

Rey bit the inside of her cheek. 

“I can see that.” 

She felt Ben shift beside her, as if he was not sure where to put his body.

“...You don’t think this happened because of what I did earlier?” he asked, his voice strained. 

She didn’t know, and she didn’t care. Panic crept up inside her as BB-8 struggled to take another breath. 

“Try to calling 911,” she commanded to Ben, bending over to pull out her own phone from her pocket. “ I’m going to see if I can reach his owners, they might know what to do.” 

They both dialed their phones and waited, Rey stroking BB-8’s head absentmindedly as she did so. When neither of their lines connected, she saw the way Ben’s hand tensed around his phone. 

“Fucking piece of-” 

“Calm down.” On a list of things Rey had the patience to deal with in the moment, a patented ben meltdown was at the bottom of the list. Before he could say anything to counteract her, Rey asked, “What was the last building that we passed? Were there any towns or anything?” 

“There hasn’t been anything for miles, not even an exit.” 

Rey furrowed her brows together and racked her brain. Everything still felt hazy from her nap but surely there had been something, anything-

“Wait- we definitely passed a farm earlier, about five miles or so back. It’s a straight shot down the road.” She turned to him, determination drowning out the panic in her. “Take him and go.” 

Ben gave her a look somewhere between bewilderment and concern. 

“I can’t just leave you here,” he countered. 

“Yes, you can.” He opened his mouth to argue again and Rey cut him off- “That farm is the best chance we have of getting any contact with someone who knows what to do. Take BB-8 and see if you can find someone or call someone for help when you get there.” 

“And what about you?” 

“I’ll stay here and try to fix the Vader. If I can get it running before you get there, I’ll pick you guys up and we’ll drive the rest of the way.” 

Rey could see Ben weighing the options on his face. It wasn’t a good plan or even a particularly sound one, but she couldn't think of any other option besides waiting and hoping things would work. 

If there was one thing Rey couldn’t stand, it was waiting. 

Without any further objections, Ben got out of the car. He shimmied his hoodie over his head, then reached for BB-8 and wrapped the cat with the sweatshirt, the soft fabric immediately engulfing his body.. Standing there in just a t-shirt and jeans, Ben somehow looked smaller, more frail than Rey would have imagined he could looked. 

“See you soon.”

“See you soon.” 

With one last look her way, Ben took off, his feet pounding against the rain-slick asphalt. Rey watched them go until his back disappeared in the gloom. That old familiar feeling of loss wormed into her stomach, emboldened by the nervousness already there, and she clenched her teeth to focus. 

Pretending she didn’t feel the droplets of bone-chilling rain pounding against her back, Rey got to work on fixing the Vader, her cellphone clenched between her teeth as a makeshift flashlight. 

The going was painfully slow. Between the temperature and the dim lighting and the fact she didn’t have any of her normal tools on hand, Rey was moving at only half her normal speed. The Vader was much older than anything she had ever worked on before, and she desperately wished she had its manual or Google or something to help her through this. 

Oh God, what if she messed it up? This car was Ben’s literal baby. If he’d been mad earlier, he’d go fucking nuclear if anything happened to it. 

Then again, he had trusted him with this car and she him with BB-8. Right now, they probably both held the fate of the most important thing in each of their lives at the moment in the other’s hands. She had to trust he’d do his part; now she had to trust herself to do hers.  

With a sharp ‘snap’, something broke off from one of the Vader’s parts into Rey’s hands. She stared at in horror. Suddenly it hit her all at once: she was in the middle of nowhere with a car she didn’t understand in the rain and BB-8 could be dying or worse. 

Rey squatted down beside the car, putting her head on her knees.

She recalled BB-8 as he’d been the day her foster parents had brought him home. He’d been small enough to fit in a Poptart box then and her and Finn had been head over heels for him ever since. For the next year until she had been carted off to her next foster home, BB-8 had been by her side, comforting her with his soft presents and friendly meows. As stupid as it sounded, he was probably one of her best friends even if he spit up hairballs every now and then. And now he was going to die because she couldn’t fix one stupid car even though that was literally the only skill she had ...

No, no she couldn’t afford to think like that right now. For all she knew, Ben had sprained an ankle or fallen into a ditch or been carried off by a falcon, and her fixing the Vader was the only chance BB-8 had. Slapping her cheeks, Rey stood up and went back to her efforts and prayed Ben was a better runner than he was travel companion. 

 

Ben’s lungs were on fire. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d run this fast or for this long. He could barely see where he was going, he just knew that he had to keep going forward. Lest he forget the urgency of the matter, every couple of moments BB-8 would let out a pitiful mewl. 

“Hang in there,” he said awkwardly, eliciting another response from the cat. 

The rain had lightened up somewhat, which was a small blessing, but that didn’t change the fact Ben was only wearing a t-shirt. Everything down to his socks was soaked and with each step he could feel the water sloshing around in his sneakers. 

He hoped Rey had made some progress on the Falcon. He didn’t like to think of her alone in the middle of the night, but truth be told he was not nearly as worried for her as he was for BB-8. Rey was a grown woman who clearly knew what she was doing. 

A rock jutted up in his path and Ben fell forward, narrowly avoiding crushing BB-8 in front of him. Blood welled out in his mouth and he coughed it out. It was only a shallow cut, thank god, and after checking to make sure BB-8 was alright, he pulled himself back to his feet and kept on running. 

Nothing that had bothered him even an hour ago mattered now. 

“It’s going to be alright,” he said through the blood and the rain, and if he was talking to himself or to the cat or the universe itself he could not say. “We've got this.” 

  
  


The roar of the Vader’s engine when she finally got it working again had to be the sweetest sound Rey had ever heard. She let out a cry of joy, wiping her oil-slick hands on her jeans and jumped behind the wheel. An hour or so had passed since Ben had ran off, so he had probably reached his destination. Rey revved the car as high as she dared given the state of it and turned it around, back up the way she came. 

The drive to the farmstead took less than twenty minutes, and in that time Rey was able to fantasize every possible terrible thing that could have happened to BB-8 and Ben. She searched the road frantically as she drove but so no signs of the man or the cat. Finally, the bent silhouette of the farmhouse came into view. Rey bumped up the long gravel driveway leading to the farm and parked by a rusted old tractor. All of the lights were off. 

“Hello?” she called out. “Ben?”

The rain had stopped, leaving behind it the eerie silence of a post-storm sky. Without the ominous rain clouds to block her view, Rey was able to look up and see more stars than she’d ever ever seen before. A city girl all her life, she’d never realized until now just how many of them there really were. 

Panic rising in her voice, Rey called out for Ben again. Nothing. She looked around. The lights were off in the house and there was nothing to be seen around her. 

Rey clenched her fists so hard the nails dug into her palms. They never should have split up. If anything happened to them, it was all because of her. 

“Rey?” 

Rey’s head snapped up. From the inside of the barn came Ben, sweaty, blood and mud covered, but still very much alive. Rey ran toward him only to stop about an awkward foot away, startled by how strong her desire to place a hand on his shoulders was. 

“Where is he? Is he okay?” she asked earnestly. 

“He’s in the barn with Maz.” Rey nodded, as if she knew who that was. “Her power went out and she doesn’t have a car, but she does have some experience taking care of animals. She's doing what she can.” 

Rey nearly fell to her knees in relief. Ben looked her over top to bottom. She could barely make him out in the near pitch-blackness of the night, and she wondered what he saw of her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m...” Rey paused. ‘Okay’ didn’t seem big enough to encompass everything she’d been feeling in the last several hours. She wasn’t even sure if there were words to describe it. 

“I’m...glad you’re okay,” she replied. For a second, Rey could have sworn she saw embarrassment pass his face, but it was gone as soon as it came. 

“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you weren’t kidnapped.” Ben jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Come on, he’s waiting for you.” 

With one last look at the star-studded sky, Rey followed Ben into the barn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bad news: I'm way more swamped than I expected going into the semester, which is saying a lot. I can't promise a regular update schedule but I can promise this story will reach its conclusion, so help me God.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? An extra long chapter as thanks for being the most patient, amazing, attractive readers ever? Of course!

Ben Solo knew a thing or two about weird old hippies, thank you very much, so he felt qualified to call Maz Kanata the weirdest, oldest, hippie-est person he’d ever met. She didn’t even bat an eye when he showed up on her doorstep in the pouring rain in the middle of a literal thunderstorm yelling, “Save my cat!” He knew he must have looked like a raving loon at best and a serial killer at worst, so he was two parts relieved and one part suspicious when Maz simply let him into the house with a look that said, “Here we go again.”

(Wait, did he really say ‘ _ my  _ cat?’ BB-8 wasn’t his cat, or even Rey’s for that matter. Ugh, the stress  _ was _ getting to him.) 

To be completely honest, Ben wasn’t quite sure what happened after that. He remember the mud, yes, and the thunder, yes, and he remembered Rey’s arrival at the farm, the pure adrenaline mixed with relief at seeing her, yes that he remembered too, but everything after seemed a blur. By the time Ben stumbled out of the shower into the room Maz had lent them for the night, he wasn’t even sure if he could have told the Vader from a spaceship, he was so exhausted. 

After pulling his pajamas on, Ben made a move to climb into the bed but stopped short at the foot of it. Sprawled out in the very center of the bed with one leg and arm dangling off the side, Rey slept in all of her clothes for the day, not even bothering to have taken her hair out first.A small puddle of drool was pooling at the corner of her mouth, and at any moment it was going to slide down onto the pillow under her. Ben shook his head at the sight. How some people could get into bed without cleaning themselves off first, he would never understand. 

Ben bent over to pick up the comforter that had been pushed to the ground and draped it over Rey’s sleeping figure. Accepting the comforter with a sleepy mumble that may have been a “Thank You,” Rey turned to her side, her back toward Ben. 

Ben grabbed an extra pillow off the bed and a blanket from the closet, then settled in the chair in the corner. It wasn’t even ten minutes before his snores joined hers. 

 

The next morning, Ben awoke to the to the wonderful noise of what sounded like an air horn blowing in his ear. He immediately flinched backward, hitting his the back of head against the wall in the process.

“Son of a bantha! What the ever-loving fuck?” he yelled. Rey leaned over him, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Rise and shine, Ben. New dawn, new day.” 

Ben grit his teeth and rubbed his eyes. Of course she’d be a morning person.

How lucky for her that she seemed no worse for the wear after their little misadventure yesterday. Wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts with her hair pulled back into its customary style, Rey looked as if she could run a marathon. Ben, on the other hand, felt like he’d just gotten into a fight with a family of bears- the bears had won. Even sitting up in the chair made him feel like all of his muscles were screaming in protest at once. 

“Where’s Maz?” he asked finally, looking around to make sure she wasn’t hiding in some crack in the wall or ceiling. 

“She left for work already A friend dropped her off. They also took BB-8 to the vet with them.” Though it didn’t show on his face, a wave of relief washed over Ben. BB-8 had looked little better after Maz had checked him over the night before, but Ben was no cat expert. The sooner they could get the stupid furball to a professional, the better. If the relieved look on Rey’s face was any indication, she was glad at well. 

“Well, thank fucking God for that,” said Ben. Rey rolled her eyes. 

“You’re cursing a lot for someone using a “Jesus, Bless this Mess” blanket,” she pointed out.

Ben looked down. Indeed, the blanket he was using said just that phrase along with a truly horrifying cartoon rendition of Jesus that would not have been out of place in a Saw film. He hadn’t gotten a good look around the place last night, given  the commotion, but one that the sun was out and illuminating everything, Maz was starting to seem even odder than he’d first thought. 

“If you had told me a day ago I’d spend the night in a place like this,” he muttered, untangling himself from the blanket and standing up. Rey smiled. 

“I think it’s quaint,” she said. “A single night a kitschy place like this would cost a fortune on Airbnb, and we got to stay for free ... well, almost free.” 

“Is Maz making us pay? She told me last night we could crash free of charge.” 

“She’s not making us pay with  _ money ...  _ ” 

Ben paused, a concern look on his face. 

“Rey, is this a cult?” 

Laughing, Rey pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him. On the top in scrambled handwriting read CHORE LIST and underneath it a bulleted list that reached nearly the bottom of the page. Ben’s eyes went wide. 

“Chores? Are you kidding me?” 

“Wouldn’t be a funny joke if I was. She also said if we go to her restaurant, lunch is on her. Now, if you need me, I’ll be in the barn fixing the tractor. Also, your portion of breakfast is on the table.” 

With that, Rey turned and headed downstairs, taking the stairs two at a time from the sound of it. Literally why was so so energetic. She also hadn’t brought up what happened yesterday, which Ben was one part grateful for and another part...well, nevermind that He had a chore list to focus on. Ugh. Just thought of it made him feel like a fucking middle schooler again. 

Ben ate his portion of sausage and eggs alone in Maz’s kitchen, not that he minded; he was used to eating on his own. He also tried not to let the the many horse statues Maz kept on nearly every available surface of the kitchen bother him. Hopefully, they could pick up BB-8 soon and be on their way. 

But first, chores. Ben checked the list again. Next to each item was scrawled a single letter, either “B” or “R” and a few handwritten notes he assumed Maz had left for them. About half of the items labeled “R” had already been crossed out, much to his surprise. Did Rey always wake up this early? 

In a span of about four hours Ben managed to: change the horses’ hay, (easy), collect eggs from the hens (less easy),  sweep out the barn (boring), muck out the stable (smelly), and feed the pigs (surprisingly enjoyable). He and Rey didn’t speak as she was busy running around with her own tasks, most of which seemed to involve dealing with the more technical aspects of keeping the farm running, like re-organizing sheds and checking out rusty pipes. 

The sun was high in the sky when he finally arrived on his final task of the day: weeding the vegetable garden. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Ben stretched and pulled his hair back into a small ponytail. Despite the pain from previous night, he’d somehow managed to blast through all of the tasks he’d been given, like his body was moving on autopilot. 

With his knees deep in the loamy soil and a pair of oversize gloves on his hands, Ben set to work. Though it had been years since he had done anything of the sort, the feeling of getting down and dirty in nature felt as familiar to him as a favorite pair of shoes. He wondered what his mother would say if she could see him working on a farm like this, something he’d sworn never to do again. 

After a little while, for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching him. Ben looked over his shoulder. Over by the barn, Rey worked over Maz’s almost unsaveable tractor. At first he’d just imagined it, but then he noticed her lift her head and look his way. Their eyes met and Rey immediately looked away, only to look over when she thought he wasn’t looking. Ben cocked his head. If she was going to look, he may as well give her something worth seeing. 

Ben stood up and stretched, intentionally pulling his arms in a way so that his muscles stood out. He looked out of the corner of his eyes to see Rey looking again, much to his triumph. He was rather proud of his body, if he did say so himself (and he did). It was one of the few things he’d manage to improve over the years, rather unlike his personality. 

Ben stretched his arm over his head, exposing his chest even further. Oh,  Rey was  _ definitely  _ staring now. 

“Objectifying, much?” he yelled out. To his utter glee, Rey turned bright red and turned away from him quickly, focusing her attention back on the wiring she was fixing. With a wicked grin, Ben returned back to his own work and pretended he didn't notice the looks that still came his way. 

A little after one o'clock, Ben finally pulled the last stubborn weed out of the garden, and he headed inside to clean off. As physically exhausted as he felt from his run coupled with the day’s manual labor, he couldn't help the swell of pride that came from job well done. There was something so satisfying about finishing things that got harder and harder to grasp as he got older. Also, he'd finished before Rey and even though this wasn't a competition, he'd totally won it. 

After a quick shower and change, with rey still working on the tractor, Ben took the chance to walk around Maz’s home. The farmhouse was ridiculously large for one woman living on her own. Despite the size of the place, Ben could find no other signs that another person lived there. Littered around the rooms where signs of a life well lived large mahogany bookshelves, half finished quilts and other other sorts of hobbies that revealed more about the woman than he'd ever wanted to know. In one of the rooms was an embroidered pillow that said “Do or do not - there is no fucking trying” and Ben grinned at the sight of it. Uncle Luke would have loved this place. 

Ben was nearly ready to stop his tour and go see how Rey was doing when a slightly open door stopped him. A strange curiosity peaking in him, he went in. From floor to ceiling, wall to wall, pictures adorned the room, some so old they wouldn't have seemed out of place in the Smithsonian. Ben took a step in. Unlike the other rooms, dust littered the surfaces. No one had been here in a long, long time. 

He picked up a picture close to him. In it, a little girl he assumed to be Maz smiled wide in front of a line of tropical looking trees. The girl in the picture could not have been more than eight years olf, her dark hair tied in long box braids and a stuffed doll in her arms. In another picture, a teenage version of the same girl stood on the bow of a ship, her eyes peeled on the horizon with tears swimming in them. Ben regarded each picture mesmerized, unable to look away.

On the far wall was a picture of Maz, perhaps in her 30s, holding hands with a small boy. In the picture next to it, Maz stood next to the boy, now man, who had his arms around a pretty woman holding a little girl.Everyone in the picture was smiling harder than Ben could ever remember anyone in his family smiling and the picture had the nicest frame in the room.

The next picture down featured only Maz and the man.  Neither of them were smiling. 

After that every picture was just of Maz. Maz shopping, Maz dancing, Maz tending to her animals. In some there were others around her, but in most of them she was alone. The man, woman and girl appeared in no other pictures.

Ben left the room, closing the door gently behind him.

 

When Rey finally finished about 20 minutes later, the two headed into town for lunch. The town Maz lived in was so alike every other dusty old country town he’d ever seen that Ben could have sworn he’d been there before. That didn’t stop Rey from keeping her nose pressed up nearly to the glass as they drove, her eyes darting around to take in everything around them.

The Takodana Bar and Sports Grill looked exactly like how Ben would have expected the place where Maz worked to look- as in, it looked as if it it should have been condemned decades ago. One blown out window was literally covered with nothing but a brightly colored towel, and even though it wasn’t even two o’clock yet, but at least four guys were passed out in front of the door. Ben and Rey stared at the building and then at each other. 

“Well our meal IS free...”

“So true.”

With that, they went in. 

The best way to describe the interior of Takodana would be boisterous. The inside was surprisingly clean despite the chaos of what seemed to be every single person in the county trying to cram themselves into the leather booths. 

They spotted Maz behind the bar arguing loudly with a large trucker, and she waved them down eagerly despite the large spray bottle in her hand. 

“There you are! I was starting to worry the horses trampled you, you're so late. I take it you everything got done?” 

“Yep, thank you so much again for breakfast,” replied Rey. “Can we still have lunch here or should we come back when it’s... less busy?” 

“ No, of course you can- JOEL HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR KIDS DIAPER ON THE TABLE- no, you're eating here.”

“There aren't any open seats though,” Ben pointed out. Maz just laughed. 

“Raoul.” Maz snapped her fingers in the direction of a knocked out man who had an entire booth to himself. He woke up when another patron slapped him roughly across the face. “Get your ass home.”

They both thought the man was about to straight up fist fight Maz, but she gave him a death glare so fierce all he could do was skulk off with a defeated look on his face. Maz gestured at the booth. 

“Sit.” 

They both sat. 

Ben was determined to find something edible on the menu when Rey piped up, “You know, I never would have pegged you for a farm boy.” 

He looked over his menu. 

“What makes you say that?” he asked.  

“I don’t know. I guess it’s because you’ve got more of a...” Rey paused, searching for the right words, “...mid-2000s mall goth aesthetic going on.” 

“Mid-2000s mall goth?” Ben quirked an eyebrow. “Never got that one before.” Without looking at her, he added, “My uncle owned a farm. Growing up, I lived with him every summer and worked on it, so I guess I picked up a thing or to.” 

Silence filled their booth. After a long pause, Rey said, “That’s the first time this whole trip you’ve told me anything about yourself.” 

Ben looked at Rey. She was swirling her straw around in her drink and looked as if she wanted to say something more, but didn’t. Ben put down his menu. 

“Don’t you have a bus to catch?” he asked, coolly. Rey pulled a face and to his surprise, he didn’t feel the usual rush of joy that came with messing with her. 

“About that.” Rey looked down at her drink. “I’ve thought it over, and I think my best option is to stay with you. We’re not even sure what time we’re leaving here today, and it’s not worth it to try to find a bus station in the middle of nowhere and then buy a ticket and then still probably be late to the wedding.” She looked back up at Ben. “Yesterday was rough, but we pulled it off somehow and today has been fine. Who knows, there might even be a chance we walk away from this not sworn enemies.” 

A whole host of snarky responses came to him. Here she was offering him an olive branch, and his first reaction was to slap it out of her hands. What the fuck kind of person was he?

“A small chance,” he conceded finally, and the way the corner of her mouth twitched up at his words made him feel like less of a huge dolt. He picked up his menu and looked away. “Miniscule, actually. Subatomic if we’re being real.” 

“But still there?” 

“...Still there.” 

Thank God a waiter came by to take their orders just then, because Ben didn’t know how much more feel good getting-to-know-one-another he could handle. 

After they ordered, a bacon cheeseburger for Rey and a drawn out exchange that ended with a caesar salad for Ben) neither of them spoke. He idly considered sending a text to his Mom just so she’d know he wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere when Rey asked, “By the way, what’s a ‘Kylo Ren’?” 

Ben nearly knocked over his drink. 

“Who told you about that?” he demanded. Grinning, Rey tapped her chest right over her heart. 

“Saw it this morning when someone was busy showing off.”

“You read my tattoo from like a million yards away.” 

“It wasn’t anywhere near a million and you’re avoiding the question. What’s ‘Kylo Ren’ all about. Ex’s name? Pet’s?” 

“Don’t worry about it.” 

Rey opened her mouth to say something more, clearly still worrying about it, but was cut off when Maz ran up to their booth, breathless. She looked at both of them with her eyes wide, looking smaller than Ben had thought possible. 

“The vet’s done.” 

They left without their food. No one said a word the whole drive to the office except when Maz directed him which turns to take. When they arrived, Maz immediately jumped out of the car and headed into the building. Ben was about to follow her, but he stopped when realized Rey hadn’t moved. 

“Getting out?” he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. Rey stared out of her window, her hands twisting into the fabric of her hoodie. He tried to follow her gaze, but it was locked on the horizon. 

“What am I going to do if he’s not okay?” 

She wasn’t talking to him. Ben knew that. He wished he wasn’t such shit at this whole comforting people thing, he wished he didn’t feel so awkward, he wished- he’d wished a lot of things over the years. He reached a hand towards her. Inches from reaching her, he pulled back. 

“It’s going to be okay,” he said and the words felt so small and meaningless coming from him he would have laughed had his chest not felt so tight. Rey simply nodded. Without saying anything, they went inside. 

Ben braced himself for the absolute worst when he walked into the clinical coolness of the vet’s office. He went over what he’d say if they found themselves faced with the absolute worst scenario. 

Instead of the absolute worst scenario, what they found was Maz talking to a very attractive young man and BB-8 jumping for joy at the sight of them, his mouth full of treats. 

“You’re okay!” cried out Rey. Pushing past Ben, she gathered the cat in her arms. BB-8’s purred so loudly Ben was sure they could hear it outside the building. Even Ben grinned.

“Yep, he’s good as new,” said the vet, clearly a little surprised by the strength of Rey’s reaction. “The weird thing was, I couldn’t find anything wrong with him.” 

Ben’s face fell. “Wait,  _ what? _ ” 

“Yep. We ran several tests just to make sure. I mean, he was a little dehydrated but aside from that, he was perfectly healthy.” The vet shrugged. “It seems you two have a perfect little actor on your hands.” 

“You’re fucking kidding me, that little...” Ben muttered. Still, Rey didn’t seem to care about the news and with her face still pressed into BB-8’s fur and the cat purring so loudly it filled the whole room, Ben couldn’t find it in himself to get more upset. Sighing, Ben shook his head. 

“You know what? That’s fine.” He looked at Rey. “Right, Rey?” 

Rey beamed at him. 

“Perfectly fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @ everyone who thought I'd kill BB-8: Who hurt you.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy almost summer, folks! :D As always, please leave a comment if you have anything at all to say!

“You’re sure you have everything?” 

“Yes, Maz.” 

“Did you use the loo?” 

“Yes, Maz.” 

“Did you pack your sunscreen?”

“Yes, Maz.” 

“Your toothbrushes? Granola bars? Neosporin? Underwear?” 

“Yes, yes, yes, and yes, Maz!” 

Maz Kanata scowled, folding her arms in front of her in a gesture that seemed decidedly too juvenile for a woman of her age. Rey wanted to laughed, but she figured doing so would incite another session of worrying which would only put them farther behind schedule. 

“I still think you should spend one more night here. Make sure you’re fully rested before you get back out on the road.” 

“We’ll never make it to California on time if we do that,” said Rey. Ben popped his head out from inside the Vader. 

“We’d be out of here a lot faster if  _ someone  _ would bother to help me pack the car.” 

Ignoring Ben, Rey smiled at Maz. 

“Honestly Maz, I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us. Without you, we’d probably be lying upside down on the side of the highway or worse.” 

“I consider it my duty to help young people from suffering premature and terrible deaths,”joked Maz.  Rey opened her mouth to say something, but the words stuck in her throat. Oh gosh, this was always the worst part about goodbyes. She had literally met this woman yesterday, and yet she already felt teary-eyed at having to leave her. 

Luckily for Rey, Maz threw her arms around the taller woman’s neck before she could burst into tears, pulling her down into a spine crushing hug. 

“Don’t forget old Maz when you make it out West. Call once in awhile, okay?” 

The sudden touch startled Rey at first, but she responded by pulling Maz even tighter. 

“Of course.” 

Rey pulled away reluctantly, instantly missing how warm the older woman felt. Maz blinked several times, her eyes owl large behind her thick coke bottle glasses, before cupping her hands around her mouth and screaming, 

“Ben!” 

“What!?” yelled Ben from the car. 

“Don’t be a little shit!” 

“What!” 

There was a bang and a string of curses as Ben hit his head on the Vader’s doorframe in shock. Rey snorted and almost doubled over laughing. 

Still laughing, Rey sat down in the passenger seat and fiddled with her faulty seatbelt. After saying his own goodbyes to Maz, Ben got in next to her. Without even saying anything, Ben reached across her for the strap, clicking it into place with one motion. As Ben leaned over her, Rey caught a whiff of what she assumed to be his cologne, something deep and sharp that reminded her of a forest. A flush creeping up her neck, she turned away. 

“Thanks.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

Rey hummed along with the engine as it roared to life. The trunk was all packed. The tank was full. BB-8 was in his carrier with enough treats to open a cat food store.  

It was time to move one.

Leaning out of the window, Rey waved and waved until Maz disappeared into a dot on the horizon. With one last longing look at where the farm had been, Rey settled into her seat, shifting into a more comfortable position and kicking her feet onto the dashboard. 

“Excuse me, were you raised in a barn?” complained Ben. 

“No, but apparently you were, Mr. Secretly-a-Farmboy,” argued Rey, making no movements to put her feet down. 

“Just because you didn’t know something does not make it a secret” Ben gave the exaggerated sigh of a man long suffering. “Fine, keep your feet up. See if I care if the airbag breaks them.” 

“That’d require your car having airbags in the first place.” 

“Touche.” 

Rey leaned her head back over the seat. “How you doing, BB-8?” she asked. The cat mewled happily in response, pawing at the checkered bandana Maz gifted him. 

“Let me know if you get tired and need to switch out,” Rey said, sitting back up. “I don’t mind driving for a bit.” 

“That won’t happen,” promised Ben. “Also, tell your friend back there if he pulls another stunt like yesterday, he’s going through the sunroof.” 

“You don’t even HAVE a sunroof.” 

“Exactly.” 

Despite the ominous threats, there was such a different atmosphere in the car than yesterday that Rey could have sung (had she been the kind of person who sang when she was happy). Instead she just smiled, closing her eyes and enjoying the warm air blowing on her face and the feeling of the world rushing around her. There was something comfortable about this silence and rather than fight it she let it be, even if she felt alarmingly aware of the man sitting next to her. 

This was all well and good until her phone rang. 

Ben and Rey looked at each other. As the mere concept of cell phones hadn’t seemed to exist in Maz’s town, much less bars with which to use them, she’d almost forgotten she had one. She nervously pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the name: Finn. 24 missed calls. Uh-oh. 

“Hey Finn,” said Rey in a quiet voice when she answered the voice.

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?!” 

The phone wasn’t on speaker, but Rey still had to pull it away from her ear, it was so loud. At the sound of Finn’s voice, BB-8 mewled excitedly and Ben rolled his eyes. 

“Back to the real world,” he muttered under his breath.

“Finn, I’m going to need you to bring it down,” said Rey, turning away from Ben as if he wasn’t sitting a foot from her and would hear the entire conversation no matter how quietly they spoke. 

“Bring it down? Rey, you disappeared! No one’s heard from you in a day! We thought you were dead or kidnapped or or or-”

“Finn. Finn. Finn, take a deep breath.” There was the sound of inhaling and exhaling on the other side of the phone. “There was a little-” she searched for a word that wouldn’t send Finn spiraling into a full blown panic attack. “-incident-” 

“Incident!?” 

“Yes, but it’s good and we’re fine and I’m on my way, I promise. I’m okay.” 

Finn always got a little wrinkle between his eyes when he was really scared or nervous and she could just imagine it settling on his brow as he processed her words. There was a long pause before Finn finally said, “...I’m sorry I yelled.” 

“It’s okay. I should have tried harder to reach you all, but I promise you there was no service where we spent the night, like at all.” 

Though Finn’s worrying tendencies could get exasperating, there was something to be said about having someone who always had your back, who cared about your well being to such an extent. She wished he was there with him so she could explain in detail the events of the last day and a half, get his opinion on this Ben and the weird whatever that seemed to exist whenever they caught each others' eye. But she was in this car and Finn was hundreds of miles away and nothing was going to change that. 

“What about you though. Are you okay?” asked Rey.

“I mean, oh yeah. I’m okay. Just planning an entire wedding by myself, no big.” 

Rey shifted, putting her feet back under the dashboard. 

“You’re not by yourself though. Isn’t Poe there?” 

“I mean, yeah, but he’s so busy managing the entire Dameron clan he doesn’t really have time to figure out table settings or seat placements.” 

Rey nodded even though Finn couldn’t see it. They’d both known Poe would have many more guests than Finn did just by the sheer fact that Poe’s family was enormous while Finn could count all his living relations using less than one hand. It didn’t help the wedding had only been announced a few months prior. Back then, she’s shared her concerns with him about taking on such a herculean task in such a short amount of time, but her best friend had simply laughed and and reassured her he wasn’t as much of a pansy as he looked. 

“I’ll be there soon, I promise,” she repeated. “We’ll make it for the rehearsal dinner and bachelor party and everything.” 

“Good, because if you miss my bachelor party I will literally never stop crying.” 

They exchanged a few more pleasantries, with Rey promising to fill Finn in on everything that happened when she arrived and Finn promising to save her as many food samples as possible. When she hung up, she looked over to Ben, whose lips were pursed in a tight line. 

“What’s that face for?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“What face?” he replied nonchalantly. 

“The face you’re making right now. Did you have a problem with something I said?” 

“I just find it funny how close you are to a man who is literally about to get married in the next 48 hours.” 

Rey’s mouth fell open.

“Oh my god. You’re jealous!”

“How could I be jealous when we literally met yesterday.” 

Right, they had only met yesterday. Somehow, this trip felt like it had taken months. 

“Of course I’m close to Finn,” she said. “I love him. We’re family. We just...fit together.” 

Ben didn’t ask her to elaborate, and Rey was glad for she was not sure she could. This was not the first or even close to the first time someone had questioned if she had romantic feelings for Finn. In fact, for a confusing period during her teenage years she had wondered the very same thing and spent many months agonizing over it in the most stereotypically teenage manner possible- what a terrible summer  _ that  _ had been. But now, many years and awkward teenage conversations later, Rey felt confident in the nature of her feelings for Finn even if there were no perfect words to describe it. 

Chewing the inside of her cheek, Rey added, “You know, since you asked a super personal question of me, it’s only fair I get to ask one back.” 

Ben snorted.

“We’re playing 20 questions now? What next, you’re going to ask me if I’ve got Kik?” 

“Only if you promise to send me nudes.” 

Ben sputtered, his entire face instantly going red, and Rey grinned to herself. So he could be fazed. Good to know. 

“But seriously, I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. It’ll give us something to talk about for the next six hours at least.” 

Rey could practically see him weighing all the pros and cons to her idea in her head before finally saying, “Fine, if you want. But I warn you, the contents of my dark and twisted mind might be hard to hear.”

Silence.

“...Anyway...” Rey tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Oh, I know. What’s your favorite color?” 

“Really digging deep with that one. Let me figure out how I want to answer that while sitting in my  _ black  _ car behind my  _ black  _ steering wheel cover and wearing my  _ black  _ outfit.” 

Rey rolled her eyes. “Message received. Your turn.” 

“Hmm. While we’re bearing our hearts out here, why do you wear your hair like that?” 

Rey’s hand instantly flew to the buns on her hair. 

“Oh, um, my Mom used to do my hair like this for me before she died.” She paused, searching his face for the reaction those words would have. When he said nothing, she continued, “ It was...comforting for me wearing my hair like this when I was young, and I just never really broke out of the habit I guess.” 

Wow, that had gotten deep quick. She usually lied when people asked about her unusual hairstyle, especially people she hadn’t known for too long, but she didn’t feel odd giving Ben the truth. She waited for the uncomfortable atmosphere that always followed mentioning her dead mother but instead all Ben was nod. 

“Understood.” Then, after a quick pause. “It suits you.” 

“Thanks.” Rey looked down at her hands then out the window before grinning. “Oh I’ve got a good one for you: Beyoncé or Rihanna?” 

They continued the game of several more hours to some shocking results (Rey never would have guessed Ben had taken water polo lessons as a child just as he was shocked to hear she’d never read or seen Harry Potter.) The conversation didn’t stray into any deeply personal topics after the question about her hair, which made her simultaneously grateful and a teeny bit disappointed. When their stomachs rumbled loud enough for them both to hear, they passed through a Burger King drive thru and went to town on Whoppers and milkshakes, slipping a few fries to BB-8. 

Rey watched as the sky above them shifted from azure blue into the crimson red of sunset and then the deep purple black of night. Dry plains replaced the rolling green of the countryside. Rey sighed, her feet back up on the dashboard, her hoodie over her lap in a makeshift blanket.

“You know, my offer to drive still stands,” she reminded him, but Ben shook his head. 

“No way, you’re half asleep. Just, relax for once.” 

Rey was too tired to argue. She yawned, slipping in and out of consciousness. One minute they were on a bridge high above a dark body of water and then she’d close her eyes for a second and suddenly going through a town with tall, tall spires.  Close her eyes, open them, why was it so hard to keep her eyes open- was that Ben humming? A lullaby- gosh when did she get so tired. Her head lulled forward on her chest and now Ben’s head was falling forward too, ha she was right he was tired and now there were lights in front of them and- 

WAIT, WHAT?! 

A car horn blared. Rey shot up, grabbed the wheel and yanked it hard to the right.  There was a loud screeching noise as the  Vader careened off the road. For several sickening seconds there was just spinning and motion and sound. Pain shot through her head and she swore she saw blood running down the side of Ben’s. The car spun several time before coming to a stop at the side of the road. Her head reeling, Rey opened her eyes to see Ben slumped over, his head at a dangerous angle. 

“Ben?” 

She shook his shoulder and a shudder passed through his body. Rey sobbed. He was alive. They were alive. In the backseat, BB-8 yowled and yowled and Rey could only hold onto Ben as the shrill of police sirens pierced through the night. 


End file.
